Camper&#39;s tent



April 14, 1925. 1,533,820

' R. R. WHITEHEYAD CAMPERS TENT Filed 001:. 2, 1924 l 2 shets sh t 1 R.R. WHITEHEAD CAMPERS TENT Filed Oct. 2. 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PatentedApr. 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT It. vvnrrnnnan, "or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, Assrenon TOTnnronEn'coMrANY,

or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A conrona'rren or ILLINOIS. I

CAMPERS TENT.

Application filed October 2 1924. Serial No. 741,141.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT IVHITE- HEAD, citizen of the UnitedStates,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in a- Campers Tent; and Ido hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to tents of the general class commonly employed bycampers or tourists, and more particularly to tents employing aso-called fly as a roof in front of the entrance to the tent.

lVhile such a fly in the commonly employed tent constructions affordsprotection against a vertically descending rain, experience has shown itto be highly inadequate for preventing the entry of either ram or dustinto the tent through the usual frontal opening. Furthermore, thecustomary flat constructions of doors are not adequate for this purpose,as they cannot readily be secured in an opened position. Consequently,the users of such tents have commonly been obliged to keep the tentstightly closed whenever they encountered either rain or high winds, thusinterfering seriously with the ventilation of the tents and the generalcomfort of the users.

I -While doors constructed after the manner of roller shades have alsobeen employed with such tents, these likewise have the seriousobjections of curtailing the ventilation of the tents and the entry ofligl'it into the tents when the doors are rolled down, and the furtherobjection that both rain and dust are apt to blow in between the edgesof the unrolled doors and the tent fronts.

\ My present invention aims to overcome all of these objections inaniexceedingly simple and highly practical construction. Moreparticularly, myinvention aims to provide a tent construction in which apair of frontal doors are adapted interchangeably to afforda completeclosure for the frontal opening of the tent, or to serve as wingsextending forwardly at opposite sides of the frontal opening so as toshield this opening against the entry of rain or dust into the tentWithout materially interfering with --either -the lighting or theventilation of the tent.

Furthermore, my invention aims to employ the usual frontal fly as partof the means for holding the doors in their said opened position, aimsto provide means upon the By for cooperating and producing this effect,and aims top-rovide simple and ing of the tent.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged andfragmentary vertical section taken from thecorrespondingly numbered line inFig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a. fragmentary vertical section taken through the fly and theopened doors from the line0 i-4- of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a similar vertical section, taken along the line 55 of Fig.S'lout witht-he doors fastened in their closed posit-ions.

WVhile my invention may be employed With equal facility inconnectionwith tents of various shapes, it is particularly adapted for use withtents of an approximately pyramidal form. I-Ience I am illustrating anddescribing my invention by referring to such an embodiment, although Ido not wish to be limited to the application of the various features ofmy invention in any particular type of tent. FurthermormI do notparticular constructions of their supports and hence amnot illustratingthese supports forthe tentproper, since the latter form no part of mypresent invention.

In the illustrated embodiment, the tent has a sloping front 1provided'vviththe usual frontal door opening, which opening desirablyhas a hottomstripof.tentingIQ extending across 'the'same so astoinaintain the desi-red tautness of the lower portions of thetent'front" at opposite sideslof this,ope iing, and also has a: similarstrip '22 extending over theXt'op of the'gsiridficlbor shields atopposite sides of'the frontal'openwish to be limited to tentsemployingany ion 7 opening.

Extending forwardly from an elevated portion of the tent front is a fly3, which is here shown as supported near its forward edges by poles at.This fly is connected to the tent front along a. line which may besomewhat above the top of the front door opening, and this fly mayeither extend horizontally or be somewhat inclined. As a closure for thesaid front opening, I provide a pair of doors 5 and 6, desirably made ofthe usual tent material and provided with cooperating fastener elements7 and 8 whereby the overlapping portions of the doors may be secured toeach other when the doors are closed.

Then I provide separate means upon the fly 3 for holding each of thedoors in an opened position. In doing thiswith a tent having a-slopingfront, each door will have its rear edge correspondingly inclined whenthe door is open, thus tilting the upper edge of the door forwardly andinterfering with any attempt to fasten the usual upper edge portion ofthe door securely to an approximately horizontal fly. To overcome thisdifficulty, I provide each door with a row of fastening elements 9spaced from the top of the door and desirably disposed along a linesloping downwardly across the door towards the free edge of the latter.I also provide the fly 3 with a pair of depending webs 10 and 11disposed substantially at right angles to the tent front and adjacent tothe fixed edges of the doors. Each of these depending webs 10 carries aseries of fastener elements 11 adapted to en age their: fastenerelements 9 on the adjacentdoor, the cooperating fastener elements 9 and11 being desirably of the usual order of snap fasteners. In practice,each of the said webs 10 is desirably composed of a piece of heavycanvas extending downwardly from the fly and continued along the underside of the fly so as to present a top portion of ample width to permitseveral rows of stitching to connect it to the fly. Thus constructed, itwill be obvious from the drawings that each of the fastener-carryingstrips depending from the is of a sub stantially angle-shaped sect-ionand normally has one web depending vertically. By

disposing these depending webs at right angles to the tent front andadjacent to the sides of the front door opening, I enable the fasteningelements 9 on the doors to be snapped into the fastener elements onthese webs after the manner shown in Fig. 2,

thereby holding the doors in forwardly opened positions at their upperedges, while leaving the bottom of each door to be secured in its openposition by other means. For this latter purpose, I desirably provideeach door at its lower free corner wit-h a loop 12 adapted to receive astake 13.

ing close to the said fastener elements 9, the inclination of the tentfront would cause these upper edges to slope downwardly, so that theywould not afford an adequate closure for the upper portion of thefrontal door opening. To allow for this, I provide each door with anupper continuation portion 14, which is desirably in the form of asubstantially triangular flap secured to the door. When each door is inits open or wing-forming position, these flaps 14 depend loosely afterthe manner shown in Figs. 2 and 3, being then inoperative.

lVhen the doors are to be tightly closed, each of these extensions 14:is raised so as to overlap the tent front portion 22 above the dooropening and is suitably secured at its upper free corner to the tentfront. IVith this latter purpose in mind, I preferably provide each ofthe said extensions 14 with a. snap hook 15 adapted to engage a ring 16disposed on the tent front portion 22 above the frontal door opening,thereby permitting the said hooks to be snapped into the rings forholding the extensions 14: in theirraised positions of 5, in whichpositions they afiord an adequate closure obvious from Figs. 1 and 5 ofthe drawings that the closed doors afford a highly effective closure forthe frontal door opening, such as may be desired on cold and stormynights. However, when the doors are swung open and secured through thesaid fastening elements to the depending webs on the fly each of thesedoors serves as a forwardly extending wing after the manner of Fig. 2.In doing this, the doors leave the frontal opening fully opened for theaccess of light and air into the tent, but effectively shield the entryof the tentagainst the entry of dust and rain. Furthermore, the doorconstruction does not in any way interfere with the providing of innerscreens, such as the screens 18 for keeping flies or mosquitoes out ofthe tent. So also, by making both the doors and the angle-sectioned webstructures on the fly out of canvas or similar textile material, I cansecure these results without interfering with the ready rolling, foldingand packing of the tent into a compact bundle when it is to be takenfrom one place to. another.

However, while I have illustrated and described my invention in anembodiment particularly suited to one type of tent and including certaindesirable types of fastening members, I do not wish to be limited tothese or other details of the construction and arrangement heredisclosed, it being obvious that these might be varied in many wayswithout departing either from the spirit of my invention. or from theappended claims.

v the tent from above the opening,

Neither do I wish to be limited to the use of my invention in connectionwith a tent having a sloping front, it being obvious from the drawingsthat it can be effectively employed whenever the fasteners 9 on eachdoor are disposed along a line correspond ing to the angle between thetent front and the line of the fasteners on the adjacent web carried bythe fly.

I claim as my invention a 1. In a tent, a front having a door openingtherein, a fly extending forwardly of the tent from a line above the topof the opening, a pair of doors adapted to jointly close the opening,means including fastening elements near the top of the doors forsecuring them in their said closure position, and means includingfastening elements spaced downwardly from the tops of the doors forsecuring the doors to the fly in forwardly directed open positions.

2. A tent as per claim 1, in which each door has a flap carrying thelast named fastening elements and disposed along a line making an anglewith the fastening edge of the door corresponding to the angle betweenthe front and the fly.

3. A tent as per claim 1, in which the tent front has a strip extendingacross the top of the door and in which each door also has a portiondisposed above the fastening elements thereon and overlapping the saidstrip when the door is closed.

l. In a tent, a front having a door opening therein, a fly extendingforwardly of a pair of doors adapted to jointly close the opening, anelevated flap on the front of each door and transverse of the door, apair of flaps depending from the fly and extending forwardly of the tentadjacent respectively to the sides ofthe said frontal opening, andcooperating fastening elements carried by each of the last named flapsand the flap on the adjacent door.

5. A tent as per claim 1, in which the fly extends laterally at eachside beyond the flaps depending from the fly.

6. A tent as per claim 1, in which the tentfront has a. portion ofconsiderable width above the said opening and has fastening elements onthe said portion adjacent to the middle of the top thereof, and inwhicheach door has at its upper free corner a fasteningelement adaptedto engage one of the aforesaid fastening elements when the door isclosed.

7. In a tent, a forwardly sloping front having a door opening thereinand having a frontal strip disposed above the said opening, a flyextending forwardly from the top of the said strip and at an acute angleto the tent front, a pair of doors respectively con nected to the tentfront at opposite sides of the opening, the said doors being formed forjointly closing the said opening and overlap ping the said strip whenthe doors are closed,

two webs depending from the fly and extending forwardly from the tentrespectively at opposite sides of the said opening, a row of fasteningelements on each Web, and a row of fastening elements on each (1001adapted to engage the fastening elements on theadjacent web, the row offastening elements on each door being disposed at the same angle to theouter edge of the door as that between the tent front and thecooperating row of fastening elements on the adj'a cent web .on the fly;

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, September 20, 1924.

ROBERT R. VVHITEHEAD.

